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Investigations Of Novel Sources Of Spin-Polarized Electrons, Evan Brunkow
Investigations Of Novel Sources Of Spin-Polarized Electrons, Evan Brunkow
Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Using a pulsed laser, we investigated the spin-polarization of electrons emitted from bulk GaAs, Ti and Pd chiral nanostructures, and electro-chemically thinned GaAs. Standard sources of spin-polarized electrons from GaAs can have polarizations of approximately 30%, while state-of-the-art spin-polarized electron sources using GaAs cathodes can have as high as 85% spin polarization. Drawbacks for these sources are that they require constant upkeep, have strict vacuum requirements, and are very difficult to learn how to use. For these reasons, we investigated new methods through a different emission process and different materials to see if we could measure a spin-polarization from these …